Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Department : English
gentlemen, with Aziz as the most prominent. It reveals the division of Chandrapore into two
factions, the English and the Indians. It shows how each feels toward the other with a kind of
uneasiness apparent in the differences between them. It is the period before the hot weather and
The Caves section plunges the groups into the hot weather. The cave incident that involves Aziz
and Adela in a trial reveals the hatred that has lain below the surface in both groups. Evil and
ugliness prevail and violence erupts briefly and then subsides, subservient to the oppressive heat.
Warily, in this section, Forster begins to sound the temple bells, and the voice of Hinduism
The trial scatters the main participants in many directions. Mrs. Moore dies en route to England;
Adela returns to England after her broken engagement; Fielding is promoted to a new position
that involves travel; and Aziz and Godbole retire to the Hindu state of Mau, which is the setting
The Temple section regroups three of the main characters, and, as the title suggests, brings
Hinduism into the spotlight. Fielding, traveling less "light" than usual, is reunited with Aziz, but
Fielding's marriage makes complete reconciliation impossible. The rainy season predominates
and seems to give new life and to renew the life cycle.
Although some critics seem to believe that Forster ends the novel on a pessimistic note, the
prevalence of Hinduism and its beneficent effect on Fielding somewhat denies the charge.
E. K. Brown discusses the rhythm in the book, saying that there is a rise-fall-rise pattern
indicated in the events of the three parts of the book: in the first part, good; in the second, evil;
Godbole's song runs as a haunting melody through the part of the book that follows the tea party,
popping up unexpectedly to produce strange effects. It finally comes to full fruition at the
celebration of the birth of the god Krishna.Forster's narrative style is straightforward; events
follow one another in logical order. Structurally, his sentence style also is relatively
uncomplicated, and he reproduces accurately the tones of human conversation; his handling of
However, Forster's rhetorical style is far from unsubtle. His descriptions of the landscape,
however unattractive it may be, frequently have a poetic rhythm. He makes lavish use of both
satire and irony, and the satire is especially biting in his treatment of the English colonials,
particularly in the events before the trial in the "Caves" section. But he is also capable of gentle
As has been noted earlier, there are numerous themes and symbols — such as the wasp, the echo,
the "Come come" of Godbole's song — which recur throughout the novel; these are not
introduced in an obvious fashion, and it is not until the end of the book that their full significance
is apparent.
Some of the statements in the book are in the form of questions to which answers are obvious;
but for many of them no answers are suggested or even implied — an indication of the
philosophical nature of the novel. Forster is not the man with all the answers, and perhaps he is
implying that he himself is not certain whether life is (in the terms he frequently uses) "mystery
or muddle" — or both.
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
A Passage to India begins and ends by posing the question of whether it is possible for an
Englishman and an Indian to ever be friends, at least within the context of British colonialism.
Forster uses this question as a framework to explore the general issue of Britain’s political
control of India on a more personal level, through the friendship between Aziz and Fielding. At
the beginning of the novel, Aziz is scornful of the English, wishing only to consider them
comically or ignore them completely. Yet the intuitive connection Aziz feels with Mrs. Moore in
the mosque opens him to the possibility of friendship with Fielding. Through the first half of the
novel, Fielding and Aziz represent a positive model of liberal humanism: Forster suggests that
British rule in India could be successful and respectful if only English and Indians treated each
other as Fielding and Aziz treat each other—as worthy individuals who connect through
Yet in the aftermath of the novel’s climax—Adela’s accusation that Aziz attempted to assault her
and her subsequent disavowal of this accusation at the trial—Aziz and Fielding’s friendship falls
apart. The strains on their relationship are external in nature, as Aziz and Fielding both suffer
from the tendencies of their cultures. Aziz tends to let his imagination run away with him and to
let suspicion harden into a grudge. Fielding suffers from an English literalism and rationalism
that blind him to Aziz’s true feelings and make Fielding too stilted to reach out to Aziz through
conversations or letters. Furthermore, their respective Indian and English communities pull them
apart through their mutual stereotyping. As we see at the end of the novel, even the landscape of
India seems to oppress their friendship. Forster’s final vision of the possibility of English-Indian
friendship is a pessimistic one, yet it is qualified by the possibility of friendship on English soil,
or after the liberation of India. As the landscape itself seems to imply at the end of the novel,
Though the main characters of A Passage to India are generally Christian or Muslim, Hinduism
also plays a large thematic role in the novel. The aspect of Hinduism with which Forster is
particularly concerned is the religion’s ideal of all living things, from the lowliest to the highest,
united in love as one. This vision of the universe appears to offer redemption to India through
mysticism, as individual differences disappear into a peaceful collectivity that does not recognize
hierarchies. Individual blame and intrigue is forgone in favor of attention to higher, spiritual
matters. Professor Godbole, the most visible Hindu in the novel, is Forster’s mouthpiece for this
idea of the unity of all living things. Godbole alone remains aloof from the drama of the plot,
refraining from taking sides by recognizing that all are implicated in the evil of Marabar. Mrs.
Moore, also, shows openness to this aspect of Hinduism. Though she is a Christian, her
experience of India has made her dissatisfied with what she perceives as the smallness of
Christianity. Mrs. Moore appears to feel a great sense of connection with all living creatures, as
Yet, through Mrs. Moore, Forster also shows that the vision of the oneness of all living things
can be terrifying. As we see in Mrs. Moore’s experience with the echo that negates everything
into “boum” in Marabar, such oneness provides unity but also makes all elements of the universe
one and the same—a realization that, it is implied, ultimately kills Mrs. Moore. Godbole is not
troubled by the idea that negation is an inevitable result when all things come together as one.
Mrs. Moore, however, loses interest in the world of relationships after envisioning this lack of
distinctions as a horror. Moreover, though Forster generally endorses the Hindu idea of the
oneness of all living things, he also suggests that there may be inherent problems with it. Even
Godbole, for example, seems to recognize that something—if only a stone—must be left out of
the vision of oneness if the vision is to cohere. This problem of exclusion is, in a sense, merely
another manifestation of the individual difference and hierarchy that Hinduism promises to
overcome.